Hands Down, This Is The Most Successful Commercial of 2013

This commercial for Volvo Trucks is the best commercial of 2013. What makes it so successful? Beautiful, simple ideas, a great concept, seamless execution, a bit of good old nostalgia and a pinch of the unexpected all mixed beautifully to give us 70 seconds of pure brilliance. With forty eight million views and counting, let’s take a look and see why this ad has been so successful.

The opening is a shocker for those of us who still remember Jean Claude from back in his hey day. He looks so old! But by the time the end of the commercial comes up, we’re touched by how he “still has the old magic”. It’s shot so simply and beautifully, all on a one shot take that starts in on a close up, smoothly tracks out – and then tracks off to the side so we are left with a super strong, beautiful composition as the commercial ends.

Like the best commercials, we are left with a sense of awe, wonder and amazement at what we’ve just seen – it is memorable. In an age and time where our attention spans are measured in fractions of seconds, this commercial just does everything right. As soon as I watched it, I went straight back and watched it again. It was that good. Today, a successful commercial is one that goes viral, gets us talking, and makes us want to watch it again.

The “stickiness” of commercials – how long we remember and talk about them for – is what makes them successful. Will this sell more Volvo trucks? Time will tell, but as far as a successful, sticky commercial goes, this one is pure gold.